GREAT BEQUESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 105, 30 October 1935, Page 15

GREAT BEQUESTS

BIGGEST IN THE WORLD

v CAREER OF J. D. ROCKE-

FELLER

HUMBLE BEGrEfinNG-

Dramatic increases of taxation have caused an epidemic of • generosity among American millionaires, writes Frank D. Long, in the "Passing Show," London. Fantastic fortunes have been handed over to research and charity. John Rockefeller; jun., is alone reported to have distributed £15,000,000 this year. But who, apart from this artificial outburst of giving, is the world's greatest living benefactor? You think you know the answer straight away. So' do a thousand others, perhaps a million. And all different. And I will hazard a guess that the world's greatest living benefactor is the man who was born on a piffling little farm at Richf ord, New York, on •July 8, 1839—John Dawson Rockefeller. He lived and worked on the farm until he was sixteen, never dreaming that from the depths of his native soil, from which his father scratched a bare living, would well up to him treasure enough to make him the richest man in the world. When he migrated to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1855, he certainly had no idea of making a fortune out of oil. It wasn't discovered—in Pennsylvania until 1860. and later still in Ohio—and he was content to become a clerk in a city office.' There is no record that benevolence was' his "strong point in those-days. . A CHANCE ACCEPTED. Seven years after the-farm.' lad of Richford set foot iiv Cleveland, he saw his chance and seized it. Nothing altruistic about that! The oil business was then in its infancy, arid a very rickety infancy, too/ Young Rockefeller,-, late farmer, clerk,: and commission- agent, stirred by. kindly, thoughts towards his own destiny, • and very definitely inspired by the chance of gaining through the muddling of-others, plunged into oil. Metaphorically, of course. He made more millions than he could keep stock of. It was his fabulous, preposterous success which made "striking oil" analogous to all successful or lucky enterprises. Rockefeller "struck oil" to an extent .no. one else is likely to rival for as many centuries, as the world had' to -wait for Rockefeller's advent. '. '.'.. ':, ; ■•-■.-• It says''something for Nature's eternal law of compensation that,, after pouring such' -vast wealth into one man's lap, she should endow that man with magnificent liberality. So richly liberal has he been with his wealth that I find -in him the answer to my question. ' , I would'say that John D. Rockefeller, the world's richest man, is also the world's, greatest benefactor. His ninety-sixth .' .birthday, thisn year, brought him £1,000,000, being the accumulation of insurance.policies he has held since he was a young man, and which fell due fdr; full payment on July 8. No other living'man, and as far as can be traced,; nobody else in the history of mankind, has received such a colossal birthday present: Happy are we that this favourite, of Plutus has for many years been more interested in giving than receiving. His. oneambition . now is to reach his 100 th birthday. Joy be to him in success. WELFARE OF HUMANITY. Nobody will ever be able to state exactly how many millions Rockefeller has given away. He started the purely beneficent career fifty years ago, but then, his charity was comparatively negligible; a few tens of thousands here and there—a mere bagatelle. ':,-.; ; y''' Thirty-four years ago he made his first substantial present to' the general pubh'c. He gave £800,000 for the erection of the Rockefeller. Institute, New York, and its endowment. The addition of a farm at New Jersey for breeding animals for experimental purposes and a biological laboratory at Massachusetts brought the gift up to the million figure. And, it is an inviolable rule that all discoveries and inventions made by the salaried staff of the institute must be offered for the public benefit. : ' .• ■:•: " ■ .■ ' Twenty-two years ago-he provided the funds for the erection of the Rockefeller Foundation, which "is today by far,and away the world's richest private agency devoted exclusively to the welfare of humanity. The last balance sheet published showed the balance of the fund to stand at', upwards of £40,000,000. , This colossal sum has not been realised by niggardly distribution,. for millions have-been spent in worldwide endeavours to improve the lot of mankind. v. Something 'like £4,000,000, in round figures, were disbursed' last year. .• -.-' - ■<■-■.-■; ■ ■ ■ . . ■■ .. . : ■Here area few of the beneficiaries, as set out in the official report, the -last published:—Universities and other educational institutions serving medical sciences, public health, nursing;1 social sciences, natural sciences, research programmes, grants in aid of fellowships and the erection of buildings to be used in public service; grants to libraries and to institutions for cultural studies, arid emergency grants to German professors whose livelihood and studies have been interfered with under the Hitler regime. AN ENGLISH GIVER. John D. is too old nowadays to take the active part he used to in the management of the Foundation, but his two sons, John D., junior, and "John D. 3rd" work as industriously as any of the numerous honorary officials. John D., junior, is chairman of the Board of Trustees. The only Englishman reported to have given away a million, and then not at one fell swoop, is Mr. James Voase Rank, the miller, of Godstone, Surrey. He, like Rockefeller, began life in humble circumstances and rose to great wealth by untiring diligence. Various members of the Wills' family, the tobacco magnates,, have in the aggregate given away considerably more than a million. The .late Lord Iveagh gave to the nation Ken Wood House,Hampstead, which,, with the accompanying pictures and estate, was estimated to be worth £600,000. In addition, he gave £125,000 to the Representative Church Body of the Protestant Church in Ireland; £65,000 to St. Patrick's. Cathedral. Dublin, and £60,000 to the King Edward VII Hospitaj Fund, London. Lord Wakefield, Lord _ Nuffield, Sir Abe Bailey, Mr. Edward Meyerstein, of Se^venoaks, have each given away more than £200,000; Mr. George ■Roberts, of Wimbledon (who may be remembered as the mysterious "Audax") has given away £100,000 or more, and- the Bernhard Baron Chari-table-Trust, founded by the late Bernhard Baron in 1928, has distributed upwards of £237,000. .-; '

lining plays some part in the easy movement of birds through the air, but it is difficult to measure its actual effectiveness, since there are no means j of. making: comparisons. The normal outline of a bird's body is more or less streamlined, although there is no constancy in the actual degree of curvature, and probably seldom, if ever, is a ..perfect streamline developed. . . .

lln fact, I would say that streamlining is an incidental rather than a causative factor in the speed of bird movement."